Thursday, July 30, 2015

WRITE NOW - MY FOUR KEYS FOR ONLINE WRITING

There
are four main things I have learned while producing content online:

Know and respect your readers and
their needs.Readers searching your topic are interested in information - fast and
palatable. They want concise, focused paragraphs, in your voice. They want enthusiasm, and basic hospitality:
translate jargon, polish your manuscript (including glitches between word
processing apps and online format), share related links, insert some humor, and
share personal experience which establishes your credibility. I strive never to
be a writer producing a few paragraphs to generate a paycheck; I have more
respect and courtesy for my readers than that.

Old school journalism techniques
translate into online journalism techniques.Above the fold (most important content of the
article in the top portion of the newspaper) has become the Golden Triangle
(most important content in the top left part of the online article field). The answers to the Five Ws (Who, What,
Where, When, Why) become your keywords, and belong bolded in the Golden
Triangle.

Every general topic encompasses
dozens of subtopics and perspectives to be worked into stories.
More than four or five subheadings in a story? That's when I break it into
several separate articles, each riveted on a single aspect within the niche. In
each of those articles, I can plant links that lead readers to all of my
related material about the central theme. This gives my readers the benefit of
all my knowledge and experience, and (bonus!) directs traffic to all my related
articles.

I learned to turn breaking
news, trends, and even Facebook comment threads into evergreen articles.
Evergreen means ever-relevant. An article about a mother drowning her five
children is not evergreen.An article
about post-partum psychosis leading to infanticide is.An article about mothers oppressed by
religious dictates that trap them into traditional roles of women they resent
is.An article about mental health and
treatment of post-natal psychotic women is. An article about how families cope
with such a tragedy is. It's fun to take a current news headline and see how
many evergreen related themes I can draw from it.I've even turned Facebook comments into
articles. To maintain my professional reputation and credibility, I fact check
every word I publish online, including Facebook posts. It's a small step from
posting an interesting factoid or bit of experience on Facebook, to expanding
that information into an article, especially if the post falls into one of my
niche categories.Everything is article
fodder!

On
September 13th, 2015 Terri married her Hottie Scottie, Blaze
McRob (Robert Nelson), who is an equally twisted horror writer who found her
online, crept into her world, swept her off her feet and revels in the fact that
they are two peas in a very strange pod.

No
doubt there will be many dark fiction tales for ooky aficionados to revel in
coming very soon.